The Kyiv office real estate market ended the first half of 2026 without any drastic changes, but also without signs of active growth. While the market showed some signs of a pickup in demand at the beginning of the year, by summer it had become clear that the main issue was not an increase in the number of tenants, but a shortage of high-quality office space. It is precisely this shortage of modern office space that is driving up rental rates and having an increasingly noticeable impact on the market structure. At the same time, vacancy rates are unevenly distributed: the best business centers are gradually filling up, while lower-quality properties continue to struggle to find tenants.

Property Times, together with experts, analyzed what happened in the Kyiv office market during the first half of 2026.

Relocations and Security Instead of Organic Growth

According to EXPANDIA, CBRE’s representative in Ukraine and Moldova, gross absorption in the first quarter totaled 46,000 square meters – nearly twice as much as during the same period in 2025. However, in absolute terms, this volume corresponds to last year’s average quarterly figures, so this represents relative stabilization rather than full-fledged growth.

The lion’s share of first-quarter transactions – 40% – was driven not by organic business expansion but by relocations and space optimization: companies moved to higher-quality and safer business centers, sometimes reducing their floor space but upgrading the class of their premises.

According to Levon Papoyan, Managing Director and Partner at SNP Partners Ukraine, in the first quarter of 2026, only 10–15% of current demand stems from forced relocations due to damage or security risks. At the same time, a significant portion of the market continues to be driven by companies moving to higher-quality business centers and organic business expansion.

For tenants, location and price have long ceased to be the only criteria – the physical safety of the building, the availability of shelters, and an autonomous power supply have become practically mandatory conditions for choosing a space. The highest demand was for move-in-ready, medium-sized offices – 300–600 square meters – which logically fit into a hybrid work model where only part of the team is in the office at any given time. As a result, landlords are playing an increasingly important role in the market by adapting larger spaces into smaller offices and offering fully finished interiors, according to EXPANDIA.

In the first quarter, the IT and telecommunications sector remained the driver of new demand (40% of transactions), while the pharmaceutical, medical, public sector, and NGO sectors maintained a stable, albeit noticeably smaller, share – 6% each. Separately, EXPANDIA notes the emergence of a niche segment of demand from medical and rehabilitation providers – a trend directly driven by the war.

Vacancy Rates and Rental Rates

In the first quarter, only 11,000 square meters of new space was added to the market – the new phase of the “Protasiv” business center (7,200 square meters) and the eighth phase of Forum City Garden (4,000 square meters), as a result of which Kyiv’s total office stock grew by only 0.5% to reach 2.12 million square meters.

Due to the lack of high-quality available space and growing demand from tenants, particularly in the defense sector, rental rates are gradually rising. “The increase in rents was influenced by a significant reduction in vacancy rates resulting from damage (temporary withdrawal from the market) to business centers following attacks by the Russian Federation. This factor is leading to the forced relocation of tenants and, consequently, to increased demand for existing business centers. Furthermore, the supply of new business centers on the market is limited, which, given the absorption rate, does not lead to an increase in vacancy rates,” explains Levon Papoyan.

According to EXPANDIA, in the first quarter, asking rental rates for Class A offices ranged from $16 to $27 per square meter per month, and for Class B offices from $8 to $18, remaining unchanged since the end of 2025.

As of June 2026, the rent per square meter for Class A space was $19.5, $11.6 for Class B, and $9.5 for Class C (excluding VAT, OPEX, KP, and BOMA), according to Kostyantyn Oliinyk, head of the Strategic Consulting Department at UTG company.

The vacancy rate in the first quarter declined to 18% (-0.5 percentage points since the start of the year), according to an EXPANDIA analytical report.

As of mid-year, the weighted average vacancy rate in Kyiv’s business centers by class, according to UTG, stands at 24.3% for Class A, 18.9% for Class B, and 14.4% for Class C, indicating market heterogeneity: expensive, high-quality properties, despite high demand, still have a significant amount of vacant space.

Forecasts for the Second Half of the Year

The most significant event for Kyiv’s office market in the second half of the year is expected to be the launch of Capital Towers on Korolenkivska Street; as part of the project’s first phase, approximately 40,000 square meters of office space is planned to be brought to market. Several more smaller-scale business centers are expected to open, although the timelines remain tentative: the situation with shelling and on the front lines could force developers to adjust their plans at any moment, notes Levon Papoyan.

EXPANDIA expects 2026 to be marked by “cautious stability”: tenant activity will remain moderate, and demand will be driven primarily by relocations, lease renewals, and selective expansion, rather than large-scale launches of new projects – development activity is being held back by security risks and limited financing. The vacancy rate will remain stable or continue to decline gradually depending on the pace of absorption, while rental rates are likely to remain at the same level with potential selective growth in the highest-quality business centers, especially for fully renovated offices.

Levon Papoyan forecasts a further 5% increase in rental rates, as the completion of new space does not mean it is immediately ready for occupancy. Given the labor shortage, renovation work on premises takes between 4 and 10 months, depending on the square footage, so the actual impact of new supply on the market should not be expected before late 2026 or early 2027. And the number of move-in-ready offices on the market, according to his forecast, will only decrease in the near future.